


Immortals

by thefuckistevvs



Category: Ben 10, Ben 10 Series, ben 10 Omniverse
Genre: Dealing With Loss, Drowning, M/M, Shrug i dont even know what i am doing, so heeeey how about that finale HEHEHEHE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-02-25 17:40:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2630546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefuckistevvs/pseuds/thefuckistevvs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some days Rook forgot that Ben was, in fact, mortal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Immortals

**Author's Note:**

> First time writing a Ben 10 Fic i am officially at the bottom of the barrel  
> Just wanted to write something sad and w e l l the finale happened and i liked it a lot so of course i wanted to make their lives miserable  
> I can't touch anything at dear god

Some days Rook forgot that Ben was, in fact, mortal.

They had fought Vilgax, Psychobos, Malware- hell, even _Maltruent_ had eventually been defeated by him; after having been through all of that with him, Rook was convinced that Ben was in some way or another immortal.

It only made his death harder to understand.

 

About a month had passed since they managed to stop Maltruent, nothing interesting happening neither on the surface or in Undertown- even the galaxy in general seemed pretty calm. This made Ben anxious, very understandable considering last time things were this calm Zombozo decided to turn everybody into zombie clowns.

Nevertheless, Rook enjoyed it. He felt they needed a break after everything they have gone through- he wasn’t complaining.

“You seem to be on edge,” Rook commented as he placed the smoothie (damned Ben, making him addicted to those things) on the table. “Is there a problem?”

“Everything is too calm, man.” The brunette rested his chin on the table, twirling a straw between his fingers anxiously. “Every minute I expect something to happen, I don’t know. Albedo suddenly bursting in, Vilgax descending from the sky…”

“We have defeated every single one of them, Ben. They are not coming back.” Rook tried to comfort his friend, but Ben just simply grunted.

“Well yeah, but that is what I thought every time I dealt with them. What is to say this time won’t be different? Or maybe just someone worse than Maltruent will show up.”

“Do not worry, if that ever happens I am positive that we will kick his posterior.”

“You mean kick his – ah, never mind.” Ben chuckled. “You know what? You are right. I just- I have this strange feeling in my gut.”

“Are you ill?”

“No, no. it’s more like…” Ben bit his lip, rolling his eyes. “Nah, forget about it. It’s probably nothing.”

Rook frowned, not exactly sure how to answer. Before he could say anything, Ben’s omnitrix began to beep- the teenager excitedly answered the call, hoping it was a mission.

“Ben, you and Rook are needed in Undertown, there has been-“

“On it!”

Before Magister Tennyson had finished explaining the situation Ben ran off to their new time bikes (courtesy of Ben10K) as he finished the rest of his smoothie in basically one gulp.

“Wait,” Rook rushed behind him, entering his respective bike feeling slightly better now that Ben seemed in far a better mood.

“Oh man, I wonder who it is!” Ben claimed as he fastened his seat belt, Rook doing the same.

“Perhaps if you had let your grandfather-“

“No time to lose!” He turned on his bike, both making way to Undertown to the first mission they had ever since they had created the universe.

 

Arriving at the place the pair noticed it wasn’t someone they had encountered before- they were so used to finding Psyphon lackeys just randomly destroying things, they were actually slightly surprised whenever it wasn’t the case. A female tetramand, destroying things in the area throwing vehicles and destroying the general area.

“Please tell me that isn’t Looma.” Ben sighed, quickly approaching the area in his bike alongside Rook.

“It appears that this is a different tetramand, she looks nothing like princess Looma.”

Ben sighed, but he was still not relieved. The girls in the tetramand race are very very strong, and in Ben’s experience, extremely aggressive.

Jumping out of his bike, Rook pointed his weapon towards the alien, her stopping her rampage and staring angrily at the blue alien.

“Put your hands in the air!” He commanded, but this just seemed to anger her far more, throwing a truck that was sitting on the side of the street at the pair. Both Ben and Rook jumped out of the way barely missing the vehicle violently thrown at them, their bikes suffering the hit and being sent skidding across the road.

“What- Hey!” Ben yelled as he realized their rides had been slightly damaged, activating the device on his wrist ready to enter into the action.

 

He didn’t even care to look at what he was dialing, slamming the omnitrix on his wrist as he shifted into form, Rath appearing in the road as he angrily pointed one of his big fingers towards the tetramand as he screamed.

“Let me tell you something lady tetramand that I have no idea why she is suddendly destroying everything in Undertown! You do not mess up with Rath’s bike!” Rath proceeded to run in fours towards the Tetramand as fast as he could as he continued to yell. “Only Rath can do that!”

He proceeded to launch a punch towards the woman, but she simply grabbed Rath’s fist on the air, twisting it and slamming the tiger-like alien on the road. Rath grunted, trying to get away from the Tetramand’s grip but she just grabbed him with her four hands, spinning around and launching him into the other side of Undertown, all while Rath screamed in terror as he landed, leaving Rook alone with the criminal.

 

Rook began to shoot the criminal, but she simply grabbed another vehicle using it as a shield as she approached the blue alien.

“That’s the best you got?!” she yelled, throwing the shield away as she slapped Rook out of the way, slamming him against one of the residential buildings  next to the dock, going through the walls and landing in the living-room of one of the residents in it.

“That did not work,” he mumbled as he stood up, realizing he had interrupted a family of walkatrouts that were just minding their own business.

“My apologies,” Rook said embarrassed as he made his way out of the building. He expected the tetramand to be waiting for him outside, and yet instead she seemed to be more worried with destroying more and more buildings as the residents around the area just ran away in terror. More plumbers appeared on the area, trying to subdue the alien as Ben finally made his way back to his partner, huffing and red faced.

“Man, I need to buy those shoes with wheels on the bottom.” The teenager caught his breath.

“This situation got out of hand.” Rook pointed as he saw how the other plumbers tried to stop the criminal, Ben dialing the omnitrix once again. “Then maybe we need four hands!” he slammed the omnitrix, expecting to be transformed into his tetramand alien. Instead, his body shifted into his incursean form.

“I don’t know why I even try anymore,” he said in embarrassment as he hopped towards the rampaging alien.

“Dude, I don’t know what your problem is, but you have to stop before you hurt yourself.” He said in a deep voice, jumping around evading all of the attacker’s swings.

“Maybe you should stop bothering me before I hurt you!” she yelled back, getting more and more frustrated when she couldn’t land a hit on him. “Will you stay still?!”

“No can do,” Ben replied, jumping as he slapped her with his long tongue- it was unpleasant for him (it still hurt!) but at least he had managed to land a hit on her.

She grabbed Bullfrag’s long tongue with her four strong hands, pulling him towards her violently as she punched him in the face, launching him against the docks almost falling to the water.

“Ben!” Rook cried out, running towards his partner as Ben tried to stand on his feet, his legs slightly shaking.

“I’m okay,” but even so Rook helped him stand, feeling how shaken Ben was from the punch to the face.

 

“Ben Tennyson!” the red alien yelled at them, she was carrying on top of her head a bus full of civilians, humans and aliens that were screaming horrified. “Let’s see if you can handle this!”

She threw the bus at them as hard as she could, cutting the air as it traveled towards the pair.

 

Before Rook could react with his quick reflexes, Ben immediately shoved his friend out of the way, the bus crashing against him barely mixing Rook by few inches as he crashed harshly against the wooden dock, the bus already making its way to the depths of the horrifyingly-deep lake in the middle of Undertown.

Regaining his senses, Rook gasped when he realized what had happened, crawling to the edge of the now ruined dock as he saw the bubbles making their way to the surface of the water.

“Ben!” he screamed out, standing to his feet ready to jump to the water- if it wasn’t for the tetramand grabbing him and slamming Rook towards the concrete. “I hope your friend knows how to breathe underwater!”

Rook knew this was bad, Ben’s omnitrix could time out any second now, and all those people…

Before Rook could get even more worried he was punched in the stomach, all the air leaving his body as he struggled for air to enter his lungs once again, the tetramand smiling as she continued to punch him repeatedly.

 

When he came to his senses Ben realized that he was being drifted to the bottom of the lake along with several other civilians.

 _Oh crap oh crap they are going to drown!_ Was the first thing that came to his mind- his body hurt with every movement, Ben was sure he had broken a bone or two- hell, maybe he broke every single bone on his body- he wouldn’t be surprised if that happened.

Even so, he used every single inch of energy to ignore the pain, he needed to save those people; they weren’t too deep, if he managed to open a window or something they could swim to safety.

Ben cringed as he climbed up the bus, seeing the inside of slowly filling with water with one of the small windows being opened,  the people frantically trying to break the windows, doors- anything to escape their watery grave. The water inside of the vehicle raised dramatically, leaving only a small bubble of air on the end of the truck- Ben managed to break down one of the windows swimming his way to the people on the inside, quickly he instructed them with his hands that they needed to get out via the window, helping every single one of them escape through the broken window. Luckily, every single one of them knew how to swim, so Ben didn’t have to worry about bringing every single one of them to the surface.

It was now his turn to leave after making sure everybody got out, his lungs were already burning and his entire body was screaming in pain, he tried to squeeze himself through the window but he felt something tugging his feet, preventing his escape.

 _What-_ he turned his head, realizing how his feet got stuck on the space between the seat and the bus floor, Ben tried frantically to get it free as he felt how the bus reached bottom, his lungs burning even more than before his head buzzing as his vision began to fade.

_No no no, come on come on, get free, come on…-_

He began to try to get free harsher and harsher, the timer of his omnitrix beeping underwater as the teenager began to panic.

 

It took several plumbers to manage to subdue the tetramand, along with Argit’s help (those spikes of him really come in handy) with the promise of paying him a lot, but Rook didn’t care- as soon as he knew he wasn’t needed he ran towards the dock. The fight had been over in the span of a minute, but for him it had been years.

“Blonko, where are you-“

“She threw a bus full of civilians there, and Ben too!” Rook yelled back to his fellow plumbers as he was ready to jump to the water, only to see the civilians emerging from the surface unharmed- terrified, but unharmed.

The rest of the plumbers got near the dock, helping everybody out of the water as Rook frantically tried to find Ben, but nothing.

“I think he got stuck,” one of soaked women yelled back at Rook, his eyes going wide and his stomach dropping.

“Blonko-“

Before anyone could say anything Rook dove into the water, not being bothered by how cold it was as he swam as fast as he could towards the still sinking bus.

 

Ben felt the life slip away from him as he floated in the water, he tried dialing his omnitrix to get any alien- _any_ and get out of there but it was useless. There was no energy left on it, it needed to charge. His vision blurred as he let the water enter his lungs- he was too tired. Way too tired, he didn’t care anymore.

The teenager felt his toes and fingertips going cold, as he kept slamming the omnitrix in hope that maybe- just maybe it would save him.

A blurred blue and black shape approached him, but he was far too out of it to recognize what it was, as his vision finally went black feeling his extremities go limp as they floated with the current of the water.

 

Rook had never swam so fast in his entire life, he felt his arms and legs burn as he made his way to the sinking bus. He saw a green and black figure inside- the omnitrix had timed out and for some reason Ben was still inside of the vehicle.

As fast as he could, Rook entered the bus through the broken window, realizing that Ben’s foot was trapped preventing him from swimming away. Rook at first tried to free him gently, but after some seconds he realized it wouldn’t do- he would have to cut the seat out.

With his proto-tool, he created a blade cutting carefully but quickly the seat, finally managing to free Ben from it. Rook carefully squeezed Ben through the window, his heart dropping when he realized his partner passed out who knows how long ago, and he was awfully limp. Feeling his heartbeat increase Rook quickly got them out of the bus as it descended to the bottom of the lake, the young Alien dragging Ben along with him to the surface.

 _Almost there_ Rook said to himself as he kept swimming, begging that he managed to free Ben in time, pleading that _Oh lord please be okay_.

 

After what felt like hours to Rook he broke the surface, gasping for air as he coughed out all the water that he had managed to swallow- immediately he dragged Ben’s head out of the water, a chill going down his spine when he realized how Ben was still oh so limp.

“Ben!” He yelled, looking around as he swam to the opposite side of the dock he had dived in at first- it was simply closer. The plumbers had spotted him and began to run towards them, but Rook didn’t care- he needed to get Ben on shore.

Panting, he dragged the teenager out of the water, placing him softly on the ground as he realized how Ben wasn’t moving at all.

“Ben? Ben, wake up.” He tapped the cheeks of the teenager lightly, but Ben didn’t react.

“Ben, please.” Rook began to panic, several thoughts rushing through his mind as the plumber began CPR, pressing the teen’s chest multiple times, passing air to Ben’s mouth in attempt to revive him.

“Ben, I beg of you-“ he continued the procedure, every time pounding more frantically as the slow realization began to crawl into his stomach that Ben wasn’t going to wake up.

“Ben, do not do this to me.” Rook pleaded as he continued, but nothing happened.

 

Rook stopped, taking heavy breathes as he saw Ben’s dead body sprawled across his crossed legs, his lips blue as water leaked from his nose, ears and mouth.

“Ben?”

No answer.

“Ben.” His soaked shaky hand approached Ben’s face, terrified that if he touched him Ben would shatter in million pieces- as if suddenly Ben was incredibly fragile, his vision shifting and twisting as he felt the blood leaving from his head while his head buzzed and buzzed and buzzed and he didn’t know what to do, for the first time in his entire life he did not know what to do and how to react, no one teaches you what to do when you are holding your dead friend in your arms.

 

Voices reached his ears but Rook couldn’t recognize them- it was as if he was still underwater and they tried to speak to him but he could not _understand_ a word of what they said, he felt a big strong hand grip him in the shoulder as he saw blurry figures approaching him and taking Ben away from him, a dead Ben. His dead Ben.

The hand that had gripped his shoulder turned him around, helping him stand as he became aware of what he was saying. The voice kept screaming “Are you okay?! What happened?!” but Rook felt the buzzing in his head intensify, the alien green eyes only focused on the plumbers that were taking Ben away- away to the hospital but Rook thought that was ridiculous, it was too late.

“I-“ Rook tried to talk, he tried his hardest to explain what happened but every single time he opened his mouth he felt as if vomit was going to come out, he couldn’t find the will to speak without crying as he shakily passed his fingers through the wet fur of his head.

“He- I could not- I-“ The young plumber felt his legs give out on him, kneeling on all fours as he saw in the corner of his eyes more plumbers running towards him.

“I am sorry, I- I could not-“ He couldn’t say more, his vision going fully dark as his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

 

\---

 

He violently woke up, sitting up immediately as he gasped for air feeling like he was drowning in nothing. Rook looked around him frantically, trying to make out where he was- he had been in that room before. It was the hospital section of the Plumber base- but finding out where he was didn’t make him feel better; if anything it made him feel worse because it meant that he didn’t dream what happened.

“Ben!” Maybe there was a small chance, he was way too shocked and maybe Ben was actually okay. Without thinking twice Rook got up from his bed yanking the wires taped to his body violently as he got up making his way to the door, his entire body sore and screaming in pain but _he did not care_.

Before he reached the door it opened, Magister Tennyson eyes widening as he saw Rook trying to get out of his room is such a state. He grabbed him by the shoulders firmly trying to not hurt him, shoving him slightly towards the bed.

“Rook you need to rest, you-“

“What happened, where is Ben? Where is he?”

Rook saw how pale Magister Tennyson was, terrible bags under his eyes with his wrinkles even more evident than ever- Rook felt his stomach go cold.

“Rook, you need to remain in bed-“

“Magister?”

“He…” Magister Tennyson eyes were glassy, his brow furrowed deeply. Rook limbs went cold.

“He couldn’t make it.”

 

Rook screamed, not even realizing he had done so as he felt his heart sink low, so low.

 

\---

Ben had been cremated, his family didn’t want to risk anyone disturbing his body after being buried- and knowing how personal some of Ben enemies were they didn’t even want to take the chance. People that Rook didn’t even know attended Ben’s funeral as well, people that Ben had known before and he had helped.

He wasn’t sure of how many people were actually there, Rook felt as if he was seeing everything through a blurry glass- he couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing. It felt as if he was seeing himself from afar, not knowing what to say or react.

He remembered that Azmuth was there, and that most intelligent mind in 4 galaxies had actually approached Rook at one point. He said something to him, but Rook couldn’t remember what it was, but the blue alien could recall that Azmuth seemed sad.

After that, the alien took off with the omnitrix on his hands. Rook never saw him again.

 

\---

 

Rook knew about the multiverse-well, he knew as much as Ben was able to explain to him. Universes with many possibilities, every single one being different in one way or another to the original one, there was even one where the omnitrix was never created.

Ever since Ben had explained it to Rook the blue alien always wondered if their timeline wasn’t actually the original one but just one of the branches that existed.

He knew that whenever something changed the natural time flow Paradox would appear to fix it, or at least tell them how to fix it.

 

Every day since Ben died, Rook waited for Paradox to appear, to come to him telling him that things didn’t go as they were supposed to, because Ben wasn’t supposed to die and somehow they fixing it like they always did.

Every day he wanted to see Paradox, he begged Paradox to fix the time flow because _Ben should be alive_ , but he never came.

 

\---

 

Rook began neatly putting his things inside of boxes, he was being relocated to bigger sleeping premises soon now that he officially was a magister but he had been putting that off for weeks. He wanted to make sure Maltruent was going to be defeated and after that he simply forgot about it while hanging with –

He began putting his few things inside of the boxes, neatly arranging them inside without a second thought; he found something that it didn’t seem his in the closet. It was crumpled in a ball, confused since he was so neat in general.

When he unfolded it he saw Ben’s white and green hoodie, wrinkles decorating the small hoodie in Rook’s hands.

Rook spent a long time staring at it, sitting in the floor of his room. He eventually brought it close to his face, taking a deep breath.

It smelled like smoothies.

 

\---

 

“Magister Tennyson?” Rook approached the man slowly. Maxwell Tennyson turned to Rook, and the blue alien could have sworn that he looked far older than he actually was.

“What is it, Rook?” The old man smiled gently.

“Can I speak with you in private?”

The man blinked, smiling and nodding as the both got far from the other plumbers.

“What is it, son?” the old man asked as Rook shifted uncomfortable.

“I would like to resign from the plumbers,” he said as he refused to make eye contact with Tennyson.  “I… do not think I am fit to be part of this organization, sir.”

“Rook,” he said sternly, his smile fading replaced with concern for the young alien. “Is this about-“

“I was not able to save him.” Rook still refused to make eye contact, biting his lip as he felt his knuckles shake slightly. “You assigned me to work with him to protect him, to help him. I-“ He took a deep breath trying to not tear up. “I failed you, sir. I have failed him.”

Magister Tennyson put a heavy hand on Rook shoulder, the alien locking eyes with him. The old human eyes were sad, the death of his grandson still heavy on him.

“Rook, it wasn’t your fault. It was an accident.”

“But I-“

“He died saving people, and I know that he would do it again if he could.” He squeezed Rook shoulder. “Ben was aware of how dangerous it was, and he still always risked himself if it meant he would save a lot of people.”

Rook remembered all those times they were on missions that Ben would gladly give his life it meant saving the day- Rook would have also done it and was prepared to do it several times as well, but he didn’t expect Ben, _Ben Tennyson_ to die, and in such a mundane manner as well.

“He saved a lot of people.” Max assured him, Rook breathing deep comforted by his words.

“What should we do?” Rook asked in pain, it still hurt too much to even think about.

Max placed both hands on Rook shoulders, reassuring him with a smile.

“We move on.”

 

\---

 

“We are here in the plumber base for Magister Tennyson retirement... No wait, that didn’t sound good. Cut.” Jimmy said to the camera man (who happened to be Will Harangue, something that many people took notice on) as he made a cutting motion with his hand.

The place was crawling with political figures from another planet, not to mention with old friends from the Tennysons and their previous adventures, waiting for the ceremony to being.

 

Rook washed his face, breathing heavily as he tried to calm his nerves.

He was taking Max’s place, and he should feel proud since it was all his work but there was something lingering in the back of his mind.

Rook turned around in his room, seeing a picture framed in one corner of him and Ben- Ben had insisted in taking a selfie and spent about fifteen minutes explaining the concept to Rook, making eventually accept such a weird thing. Ben’s shirt was plastered with dirt, his face scrapped as well- Rook was also in the same dirty shape. They had just arrested Psyphon for the hundredth time and Ben decided it would be fun to take a selfie about it, much to Psyphon annoyance.

Rook smiled, exiting the room taking one last glance inside.

 

He closed the door. There were people waiting for him outside.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!!!!


End file.
